Rants. raves and ramblings from celestial circles . . .

Posts tagged ‘America’

Lately, my mailbox fills with political articles critical of our new administration leader. Even before the election, it seemed like a deluge mimicking the New York Times or The Washington Post or CNN. So I felt compelled to respond to the recent parades of dissent.

I am very much a foe of the mob mentality. It only means they have all failed at the electoral polls and want to rule through mob force. It’s not much different than law enforcement or the military attempting to force unpopular edicts. I respect the rights of peaceful assembly, aside from the cost to taxpayers for extra security and to clean up their trash. But I personally believe these protests are disingenuous on several levels. I don’t disagree with some of their grievances for equal pay, but it seems all of this is a knee jerk reaction because Clinton lost and the social instigators like George Soros and company have put a lot of time and effort to disrupt our government as much as they possibly can right now. I see these people (some which are my friends, by the way) as sheeple. Led by a mob mentality to promote a national (they attempt international) public relations event to destabilize our current system of Democracy. It also sets a bad precedent for all those ‘cute’ little children with the signs. They see the mob mentality as more important than direct discussions, negotiations and resolutions. At a time when our children are deprived of early education on discussion and debate without hostility, and group resolution of issues in disagreement, it is sending the wrong message. Mob mentality also gives the false impression that because people can organize others to show up in large numbers, it means that everyone is on board with their demands. That is certainly not the case. Many people have much better things to do.

I can relate to organized protest in countries where they are repressed, or under strict dictatorships that deny their citizens their human rights. But that is not the case in the freedom loving United States of America. Those marchers have all of the basic human needs. And they have more opportunity for growth and success than 90% plus of the rest of the world. The marches also empower more dissent against the rest of the population that are trying to promote advancement and change within the parameters of our system of rule. Many of these people criticize ‘Trumpsters’ as bigots, haters and against women, children and the elderly. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We that have supported Donald Trump also believe in human rights, equality for gays, women and other minorities, and that each and every American should have opportunity and the support of their communities for health care, education and prosperity. But we see issues as changes that have to be made TO our SYSTEM. Working WITHIN the system to legislate change that is FAIR to all Americans. Not much different from the opinions of many of those standing in the crowds.

So the bottom line is, ‘we shall see’. We shall see what becomes of the disruptive ‘marches’. Whether they disintegrate into another Occupy fiasco of jobless vagrants trashing out public property and creating more divisiveness and bitterness in our country, or whether they decide to join us with a new administration as we attempt to rectify so many wrongs, not just in our country, but around the world.

As much as I respect the young Muslim girl that gave a speech at one of the gatherings, I also know for a fact, that in many places on the opposite side of the world she would have been dead the next day, if not the same day. Which is why I also feel so many of those marchers understand very little about history, or culture, or what the rest of the world actually even looks like. They are a sheeple controlled and manipulated by a mass media, and in many cases, organizers that care little about them or their lives. Many of the organizers only motivations are to create mass havoc and hysteria to advance their own selfish glory. This is exactly how dictators have come to power in every historical instance of the recent past. I, along with many others, will work consistently to assure this never happens in America.

I have been living mostly in the Middle East for the past five years. My home and family are in the USA. I calmly listen to the mostly uninformed opinions, both right and left, of my friends and family back home. I post my responses and my tidbits of personal experience and insight for them on social media. Their experience of the world is CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the mainstream outlets or NPR and PBS. A few of them may have ventured on vacation to a resort in Mexico or the Caribbean, and even fewer may have ever been to Europe or another country outside of North America.

There is ignorance and hate across the Middle East. Just as there is ignorance and hatred in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Balkans, South America, Central America and North America, including the USA. There are groups of extremists in almost all Muslim countries. Some governments are much stricter than others. There are other Muslims that aren’t violent extremists. But they do accept what I consider to be the ignorant and superstitious Islamic beliefs that condone violence against others, including women and children and members of their own families.

I consider any Muslim that still believes in the extreme forms of punishment, or the disrespect of the rights of women and children, to be an accomplice to an ignorant abomination . . . of any religion. And actually, it is no religion at all. It is not a religion or belief system that the God I know would approve of. There are many more millions of Muslims you never hear about. They are the ones that live in the peaceful areas of many countries and they live their lives much like you and I. Without all the extreme idiocy the media is so quick to focus on. They work hard day in and day out to feed and clothe their families. And to provide a safe roof over their heads so their children can do the same for their own families someday.

Yet, we must never stop reporting on the ignorance and hatred, including the ignorance and hatred of extremist Muslims in Europe, America and other predominantly non-Muslim countries. They have to be called out every day. Most important, other Muslims need to raise their voices and communicate to the ignorant and superstitious Muslims, that Islam needs to live peacefully with all the other religions of this Earth. This must be the priority, the goal and the destiny of the religion. As it always should be.

At the same time, Western leaders should never deny the fact that there are violent Muslims and also other Muslim extremists that are a constant danger to all of the rest of the world. They must understand that when Islamic communities are isolated within Western countries and allowed to do whatever they want, there will be hatred, extremism and violence. You can not throw two radically different culturally, economically and religious groups together and expect them to peacefully integrate within a single decade. This productive peaceful integration will often take decades and in some historical cases throughout the world, centuries. Education is always the most powerful weapon we have against ignorance. Education is also the most powerful weapon we have against poverty, always.

Be always on your guard. This is not the quiet mostly peaceful world of yesterday. The media and technology have unleashed the Frankenstein of Mary Shelley’s most excellent and prophetic novel. Tolerance, freedom and liberty must always be accompanied by a very strong and intense dose of respect for others. Seek the truth.

The idiot is never equal to the genius!

There are three reasons why socialism will never work, neither as a philosophy, nor as a viable political system of government.

First, the idiot is never equal to the genius. Socialism assumes we are all equal. We are not. This is why a productive, intelligent person gets paid more than a sloth.

Second, when you compensate the productive, intelligent person, the same as the sloth, you have no incentives for creativity or productivity. In short, the genius will live and perform like the sloth because the rewards will not differ.

And third, much like a democracy, when given the opportunity to advance at the expense of others there is an inherent tendency in human behavior to gravitate toward greed. In a Socialist system you always have to have ‘the distributor‘. This is the one person or group that is given the responsibility to ‘distribute‘ resources. And like many governments and countries today throughout the world, the concept of ‘one for you, and one for me’, soon morphs into ‘half for you, three for me and I’ll sell you another half for a price‘.

The difference between the two systems, Democracy and Socialism, is that with Democracy citizens have the power to change things no matter how diluted the capabilities may sometimes be. In Socialism, you don’t have a vote. You don’t have the right to protest, and you certainly don’t have the right to change the system. You are stuck with the results every time.

All attempts at partial Socialism have failed because the philosophies of Democracy and Socialism are at odds with each other. They are complete opposites and two completely different ways of thinking. They cannot be ‘gracefully merged’ in a social system or political. And they cannot be ‘intertwined’ in an economic system.

Communism is the bureaucratic implementation of Socialism. It augments the Socialist ‘dream‘ with ‘youth brigades’, ‘party elders’, and ‘neighborhood vigilante squads’. It is a forceful extension of the concept of Socialism with a dictatorial bureaucracy built to assure all the servants are abiding by the strict rules of the State. It creates a burgeoning bureaucracy, complex enough to make any bourgeois bureaucrat proud.

It has never been implemented successfully because it is a philosophic, economic and idealistic FAILURE.